Cleaning textiles, cleaning structures and wiping coverings consist predominantly of a mixture of the basic components, cotton and synthetic fibers. The mixture of both basic components is necessary since the components sometimes have conflicting properties. A wiping covering can achieve maximum performance when a large number of positive properties are combined in it.
There are several properties to take into consideration to achieve maximum performance of the cleaning textile, cleaning structure and wiping covering, such as water absorbency, dirt carrying capacity, abrasiveness, washability, and sliding behavior. The water absorbency of cotton is approximately 250% and that of synthetic fibers is virtually 0%. The dirt carrying capacity of cotton is good, whereas the dirt carrying capacity of synthetic fibers is poor, with the exception of microfibers and polypropylene fibers. The abrasiveness of cotton is very low, whereas that of synthetic fibers is high. Additionally, although cotton, polyester and polypropylene are washable up to 95° C., the washing stability of cotton is nevertheless poor, while that of polyester and polypropylene is good. Cotton also has pronounced shrinkage, whereas synthetic fibers exhibit low shrinkage. In addition, cotton displays poor sliding behavior, whereas that of synthetic fibers is good.
Even though cotton absorbs 250% of its own weight of water, a pure cotton fabric is highly unfavorable on account of its poor sliding behavior and its instability during washing. Although properties such as abrasiveness, shrinkage, sliding behavior and washing stability, can be adapted to many situations by appropriately selecting material fractions of cotton and synthetics, the water absorbency is nevertheless, less than 250% when various mixtures of cotton and synthetics are used.
A flat wiping covering for the care of hard floor surfaces, includes a carrier fabric to which material portions are stitched on the underside and on which holder push-in pockets are stitched on the top side of the longitudinal ends is known from DE 38 09 279 C1. This describes a wiping covering for floor care, preferably having a carrier fabric with holder push-in pockets stitched on the top side of the longitudinal ends of the carrier fabric and material attached on the underside of the carrier fabric for the absorption of dirt and moisture. The wiping covering has a low dead weight, good absorbency and a high water storage capacity. In this case, the underside material is in the form of sponge or nonwoven-cloth material with high liquid absorbency. The sponge or non-woven cloth material form a plurality of strips extending over the length of the carrier fabric and are arranged in rows adjacent and parallel to one another. The strips of sponge or non-woven cloth material being attached to the carrier fabric by stitching. The water absorbency of the sponge or nonwoven cloth material is up to 3,600 g/m3, and the relative water absorption of the sponge or nonwoven cloth material is up to 1,400%. The water absorbency being determined according to DIN 53 923.
However, there is room for improvement in the flat wiping covering according to DE 38 09 279 C1. Considerable problems can arise in the handleability of the flat wiping coverings since the strips of sponge or non-woven cloth material are stitched to the carrier fabric, for example, reversible shrinkage of 30% in relation to the wet state can occur upon drying. In the wet state, the coverings have a calculated length, in which the covering sheet of the carrier material is flat. In the dry state, shrinkage of the sponge cloth lamellae of approximately 30% in relation to the cotton/polyester carrier fabric of the covering sheet occurs, leading to extreme distortions of the covering upon drying. The large degree of shrinkage of the sponge or non-woven cloth materials upon drying creates difficulty when inserting the wiping covering device into the holder push-in pockets of the carrier fabric. Nevertheless, forcibly inserting the wiping device into the holder push-in pockets damages the wiping covering. Even though the covering can be dampened before the wiping covering device is inserted into the push-in pockets of the covering, this is nevertheless disadvantageous since it entails a considerable amount of time and effort in handling. A further disadvantage is that the sponge or non-woven material is stitched onto the carrier fabric resulting in the water absorbency of the material being markedly reduced in the vicinity of the seams.
An improvement in water absorbency or water absorption-power was achieved, for example, in the patent specification DE 38 09 279 C1, already mentioned above, in that, in addition to cotton and synthetic material, a sponge or nonwoven cloth material with a high viscose fraction is also used. Water-absorbing materials, such as sponge or wood, work by replacing their air filled cavities in the dry state with liquid, when they are dipped into a liquid. This liquid absorption, however, is necessitated by the dipping of the material into the liquid, making it difficult for cleaning liquid to be absorbed from hard floor surfaces when the water-absorbing materials are in their dry state. The water-absorbing materials in the dry state even fail to appreciably absorb liquid in the case of a residual quantity of 15 g of cleaning liquid per square meter, which amounts to only fractions of a millimeter of thickness, since liquid absorption is necessitated by dipping the material in the liquid. Moreover 15 g of cleaning liquid per square meter represents an unacceptable level of moisture for coated PVC floors.
It is therefore necessary to have a different form of water absorbency which may be described by water suction capacity, for a wiping covering absorbing cleaning liquid. In this case, the material picks up the liquid on the contact interfaces via the suction effect, so that the liquid is downright sucked up. While a residue of 15 g of cleaning liquor per square meter on hard floor surfaces represents an unacceptable level of moisture, the aim is to achieve a residual liquid quantity of 10 g/m2. It was observed that, in the case of a residual moisture of 11 g/m2, the cleaning performance falls abruptly.
This negative jump is explained by the free movability of the pigment dirt in the relatively higher moisture film on the wiping surface. This possibility is eliminated below 11 g/m2. The dirt can no longer escape from the wiping materials, but, instead, during the wiping movements, it adheres to the material of the cleaning-active side and can be removed in this way.